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A dazzling and darkly comic novel of love, violence, and friendship in the California suburbs Bunny Lampert is the princess of North Shore--beautiful, tall, blond, with a rich real-estate-developer father and a swimming pool in her backyard. Michael--with a ponytail down his back and a septum piercing--lives with his aunt in the cramped stucco cottage next door. When Bunny catches Michael smoking in her yard, he discovers that her life is not as perfect as it seems. At six foot three, Bunny towers over their classmates. Even as she dreams of standing out and competing in the Olympics, she is desperate to fit in, to seem normal, and to get a boyfriend, all while hiding her father's escalating alcoholism. Michael has secrets of his own. At home and at school Michael pretends to be straight, but at night he tries to understand himself by meeting men online for anonymous encounters that both thrill and scare him. When Michael falls in love for the first time, a vicious strain of gossip circulates and a terrible, brutal act becomes the defining feature of both his and Bunny's futures--and of their friendship. With storytelling as intoxicating as it is intelligent, Rufi Thorpe has created a tragic and unflinching portrait of identity, a fascinating examination of our struggles to exist in our bodies, and an excruciatingly beautiful story of two humans aching for connection.
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This is a story about what happens when good people do bad things, when bad people do good things, how we hold people accountable, and what accountability means. It's about holding space for both the light and the dark in one another and how we judge others.
The ending reminded me a bit of Catcher in the Rye, which I read in high school and don't remember much of, other than feeling empty and a little gross when I finished it.
Back then, I didn't have the capacity for unanswered and unanswerable questions, but this story reminded me that that's the beauty of life. We don't have all the answers, and that's okay. The only thing holding this back from being a favorite read is that the ending was gutting and the pacing toward the end is a little choppy. Other than that, this book is truly phenomenal.
All I knew of the plot going in is that it's about two high schoolers, a six-foot-three volleyball player named Bunny from a wealthy family and a loner misfit coming to terms with his sexuality. They find kinship in one another and develop a truly unique and special friendship.
A sudden violent event changes both of their futures, and the fallout lasts for years and takes its toll on their friendship. What I loved about this book is that is wasn't afraid to go there and dove deep into topics we don't often talk about, especially in a time where we can be quick to judge others without understanding the full story.
The mention of my hometown at the end caught me completely off-guard and made me smile.
*4.5 stars*
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